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59th Congress, ) HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, i Document 

*^ ^ '. Session. ( { No. 789. 



118 
B5 

L906a EDUCATION IN ALASKA. 

:opy 1 



LETTER 



FRO?i 



THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY, 

TKANSMITTING 

A COPY OF A COMMUNICATION FROM THE SECBETAIIY OF THE 
INTERIOR SUBMITTING AN ESTIMATE OF APPROPRIATION FOR 
EDUCATION IN ALASKA. 



May 14, 1906. — Eeferred to the Committee on Appropriations and ordered to be 

printed. 



Treasury Department, 

Office of the Secretary, 

Washingfof^, May 11., 1906. 

Sir: I have the honor to transmit herewith, for the consideration of 
Congress, cop}^ of a communication from the Secretary of the Interior 
of this date, submitting* additional estimates of appropriations for 
incorporation in the sundry civil biU for the fiscal year 1907, under the 
general object of education in Alaska, amounting to 1510,000. 
Respectfully, 

L. M. Shaw, Secretary. 

The Speaker of the House of Representatives. 



Department of the Interior, 

Washingta?i, May 11, 1906. 
Sir: I have the honor to transmit herewith a communication from 
the Commissioner of Education, dated the 10th instant, submitting 
additional estimates of appropriation for incorporation in the sundry 
civil appropriation bill, to wit: 

For the support, maintenance, construction, and rental of 50 additional day 
schools in Alaska, for the Eskimos, Indians, and other natives, to be 
immediately available, etc $200, 000 

For the construction and equipment of 2 industrial boarding schools for 
the children of the native races of Alaska, to be located at suitable points 
in Alaska, to be designated by the Secretary of the Interior, to be im- 
mediately available, etc 155, 000 

For the construction and equipment of 2 orphan asylums for the children 
of the native races of Alaska, to be located at suitable places in Alaska, to 
be designated by the Secretarv of the Interior, to be immediately avail- 
able, etc '. 155, 000 



^2 EDUCATION IN ALASKA. jf^ 

The estimates in question have my approval, and are respectiuu^^ 
forwarded through your Department for the appropriable acuon ot the 



Congress. 



lespectfully, E- A. If^TCHCOCK 

J^^ -^ ' ? Secretary. 

The Secretary of the Treasury. 






Department of the 1 ."fTERiOR, 

Bureau oi' Education, 
Washington, D. '0. , May 10, 1906. 
Sir- 1 have the honor to acknowledge herewith your communication 
^of April 25, 1906, inclosing- for my information a tentative memoran- 
dum of suggested legislation to be incorporated in the sundry civil bill 
providing for appropriations to be expended in the betterment of the 
condition of the Alaskan natives. ^ j •- ijj <. 

After full consideration of the matter it has suggested itself to me 
rtbat it was probablv your purpose that I should communicate in writ- 
ing anything that occ-urs to me as pertinent to the tentative memoran- 
dum of legislation to be incorporated in the sundry civil bill P;-oviding 
for appropriations to be expended in the betterment of the condition ot 

the Alaskan natives. . , . , . . ^^.,> , f^ 

The proposed estimate of appropriation mclosed by you seems to 
me a very reasonable and adequate measure to recommend to Congies. 
The only assumption permissible in the case is that the United btates 
moDoses to do in the most efficient manner the work ot educating the 
nXes of Akska in schools both elementary and industrial Inasmuch 
as the number of the native children enrolled in the scHooIs at present 
Z operation under the Government is somewhat less than one -half of 
ihe^number that can be reached where Government buildings are 
already erected, or where buildings ought to be Pi-^^^^fed without tur^ 
thei delay, thei^e should be an appropriation placed at the disposal of 
the Secretary of the Interior of twice the amount appropriated for the 

vpnr 190.5-6 which was $50,000. . , . ^ ^ j 

^b. the meromndum which you inclose I note with interest and 
^Zvovl as second item the provision in advance ot an appropriation 
"^a^4Xble immediately upon'the passage of the -t and m the disc^^^^^^^^^^ 
-of the Secretary of the Interior, thereafter until such schools are 
erected and completed," said item reading as follows: 

For the support, maintenance construction, and ^^Jf ,^1 ^Jofto "^^'"''"'^ "^^^ 
■schools in Alaska for the Eskimo, Indians, and other natives, $.00,000. 

All the appropriations for the schools of northern Alaska ought to 
l>e made two years in advance, although with limitations forbidding 
i:he expenditu/e of the same before the beginning ot the hscal year tor 
which the appropriation is made, for the season of activity m Alaska 
begins on the 1st of May and ends on the Ist of October. All plans 
must be completed before the 1st of May m full detail so that the 
earliest vessels sailing for northern Alaska may take out with them 
supplies, building materials, carpenters, teachers, and others, who are 
to reach places on the Arctic Ocean or the Bermg Sea m time to put 
in their work during the short season when the sea is clear ot ice It 
it is not known at the Bureau of Education how much money is to be 

:. DEC 10 1^0? 

'",1 D.ofO. 



EDUCATION IN ALASKA. 6 

appropriated or whether any money will be appropriated, it is impos- 
sible to make plans for the work ot" the coming ti.scal year until July 
1st,- and at that time it is entirely too late for vessels leaving San P^ran- 
cisco oj" Seattle to venture through the Bering Strait, because on their 
arrival early in August the ice j)acks have l)egun to form in the Arctic 
Ocean and they ai'e liable to close in towaixl the shore with any nortli- 
erl^v wind so as to crush an^' sort of craft that ma}' have ventured 
along the northern coast of Alaska. 

(In one instance where the appropriation was so probable as to be 
next to certain the United States Commissioner of Education and the 
United States agent for education in Alaska advanced in equal shares; 
the sum of $50i » for barter goods needed for the summer cruise to pur- 
chase reindeer on the Siberian coast, the two persons named being 
willing to lose the cost of exchange and the use of their money until 
the return of the revenue-cutter, whose captain was to make the pur 
chase of the deer, and after delivering them to the Bureau of Educa 
tion receive his money from the appropriation which would be avail- 
able at that time and return the money advanced to the persons who 
loaned it. In this instance the cruise was not successful in obtaining- 
the deer and the money was returned without using it.) A delay of 
three months in the matter of certaint}'^ as to a Government appro- 
priation works in ordinary cases the postponement of an entire year in- 
beginning a new work in northern Alaska. And in ordinary cases if the 
appropriation is not known as early as March there is not time for 
maturing the most efficient plans for the coming year and a great many 
more errors occur in the administration of the fund than w'ould occur 
in case the appropriations for Alaska were fixed in the act of Congress 
two years ahead. 

The third item proposes the construction and equipment for the chil- 
dren of the native races of Alaska of two industrial school buildings 
at a cost of $155,000 each, and the fourth item provides in like manner 
for two orphan asylums for the children of the native races of Alaska, 
each to cost the same sum of money, namely, $155.<>(H). I think that th& 
adoption of such legislation looking to the establishment of industrial 
schools and orphan asylums would have a powerful efiect in uniting- 
and systematizing the Government school work in Alaska, but it is quite 
important tluit tlie orphan asylums be placed in the same locations with 
the industrial schools for the reason that the tendency is to turn a good 
industrial school plant into a mere orphan asylum. Cases of necessity 
continually arising make an excuse for forcing u])on the industrial school' 
the admission of orphans too young to profit by the course of study 
and of practice which ought to i)e followed in the industrial school pro- 
gramme. If th(> orphan asylums are in the same location with the 
industrial schools this danger will ])e avoided. 

In this comiection it is permissil)le to state that there re two verv 
good situations for such schools, namely. L'nalaklik. a few miles to tlie 
iioi'tli of St. Michael, which is the port at the mouth of the Yukon- 
^'all('y and <'asily acccssil)le for the Alaskan ]i()]Mdation in the Arctic 
r(>gi(>ns. The other location, which seems admirably adapted, is the 
region of Iliamna Bay, on Cooks Inlet, on th(^ northern Atlantic, free 
from ice foi- na\ig:itioii thi'oughout th(» yetir. A good-sized herd of 
reindeer has been established there dui-iiig the ])ast year, and it is pos- 
sible to double its size l)y adding to it nearly 4<m) deer due to be returned 
the present sununer from the Moravian herds at Bethel, near by. It 



4 EDUCATION IN ALASKA. 

is easy to organize in the industrial schools and orphan asylums a corps 
of skillful medical men. two or more of them, which would be of great 
service in those regions that are visited from time to time by fatal 
epidemics. 

The more I study the provisions of this bill the more I am impressed 
with its promise of permanent good to the Government schools of 
Alaska, and in accordance with your suggestion 1 have the honor to 
submit for your consideration and approval the inclosed estimates of 
appropriations. 

Ver}^ respectfully submitted. 

W. T. Harris, Commissioner. 

The Secretary of the Interior. 



Memorandum of laws relating to education in Alaska and appropriations necessary to 

extend and better such educational service. 

In the original "act providing a civil government for Alaska," approved May 17, 
1884 (U. S. Stai. L., vol. 23, p. 27), and again in the "Civil Code" for Alaska, approved 
June 6, 1900 (U. S. Stat. L., vol. 31, p. 330), it was enacted "That the Secretary of 
the Interior shall make needful and proper provision for the education of the chil- 
dren of school age in the Territory of Alaska, without reference to race." 

On January 27, 1905, Congress by legislation placed the schools for white children 
in Alaska under the governor of Alaska, as ex officio superintendent of public instruc- 
tion in said district, and in section 7 of the same act, "An act to provide for the con- 
struction and maintenance of roads, the establishment and maintenance of schools, 
and the care and support of insane persons in the district of Ajaska, and for other 
purposes" (U. S. Stat. L., vol. 33, p. 619), enacted as follows: 

"The education of the Eskimos and Indians in the district of Alaska shall remain 
under the direction and control of the Secretary of the Interior, and schools for and 
among the Eskimos and Indians of Alaska shall be provided for by an annual 
appropriation." 

To enable the Secretary of the Interior to comply with the above legislation the 
following appropriations are necessary: 

First. For the support and maintenance of 36 day schools previously established 
in Alaska for native children, the sum of $100,000, to be immediately available. 

If this appropriation is granted it will probably be expended as indicated on page 
515 of the Estimates of Appropriations, 1907. 

Second. For the establishment of 50 additional day schools in Alaska, |200,000. 
In the Annual Statement of the Commissioner of Education for the year ending 
June 30, 1905, page 30, he sets forth a list in detail of 177 native villages in Alaska, 
containing approximately a school population of 4,000, which are now entirely 
without school facilities. These villages are distributed as follows: 

In northeast Alaska, 47; in southwest Alaska, 48; in southeast Alaska, 44, and in 
northwest Alaska, 38. 

It would, perhaps, not be practicable at once to establish all of the 177 new schools 
required to reach the school population in Alaska now entirely without schools. It 
is, therefore, proposed during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1907, to establish schools 
in fifty of the more important of these villages. 

Third. The construction and equipment of two industrial boarding schools for the 
children of the native races of Alaska. Up to the present time no Government 
industrial boarding schools have existed in Alaska. The few bright children that 
have been able to leave the Territory to acquire an industrial education have been 
received in the Indian schools at Carlisle, Pa., and at Chemawa, Oreg. 

Owing to the great expense of transportation to the eastern schools but compara; 
tively few Alaskan children have been able to enjoy these advantages. This has 
created a public sentiment in favor of the erection of a few industrial schools in 
Alaska, where the brightest children from the day schools can receive instruction in 
such industries as are adapted to the country in which they live. 

The [Jnited States public day schools for the natives of Alaska aim at giving the 
natives a primary education in the speaking and use of the English language, in 
order to enable them to communicate with the white population and obtain a living 
thereby. 



EDUCATION IN ALASKA. 5 

The object of the industrial schools on the other hand, is to furnish the more 
intelligent natives with such industries as will better enable them to support them- 
selves, such as— in northern Alaska— herding, training, care, and management of 
reindeer, boat making, sled making, fish curing, use of carpenter's tools, sewing and 
making of fur clothing, shoes, and such other industries as may be to their advan- 
tage. 

[n southern Alaska there would need to be the same instruction in the making of 
clothing for men and women, the use of- carpenter' s tools, the simpler form of black- 
smithing, boat making, sled making, fish curing, the sawing of lumber, the manage- 
ment and care of sawmills, the raising of domestic animals, such as chickens, cows, 
and the raising of vegetables, and such other industries aB the country may afford. 

In connection with each of the two industrial schools it is proposed to establish, as 
a part of the school plant, a small and well-equipped hospital and dispensary for the 
use of such members of the school as may be ill, and that there shall be a resident 
physician at each of these industrial training schools, who shall first of all give such 
professional service as may be needed to the school, its pupils and its teachers, and 
in addition to this shall maintain, under the .direction of the Commissioner of Edu- 
cation and in accordance with plans to be formulated and provided by him, such a 
free dispensary service for the native races as it may be practicable to give free of 
expense to such natives as apply for medical or surgical assistance. 

Fourth. In 1900 an epidemic of grip and measles in the native villages on the 
Aleutian Islands, on both the American and Asiatic shores of Bering Sea, on the 
Arctic coast of Alaska to Barrow, and along the Yukon Valley, caused the death of 
from one-fourth to one-third of the native population, leaving many young orphans,^ 
helpless. 

Epidemics in milder forms are of constant occurrence throughout Alaska, and it is 
the duty of the National Government to care for these destitute orphans. 

In order that the orphans may have the advantages of the services of the physicians, 
it is proposed to locate the orphanages in the same places as the industrial boarding 
schools. 

In order _ to carry out the recommendations contained in this communication, I 
respectfully recommend that the following appropriation be made by Congress: 

Estimates of appropriations required for the services of the fiscal year ending June SO, 1907. 

Interior Department. 

INTERIOR sundry CIVIL, MISCELLANEOUS. 

Education in Alaska: 

For the support, maintenance, rental, repair, and improvement of the 
day schools now established in Alaska, including pay and necessary 
traveling expenses of the general agent for education in Alaska and 
the assistant general agent, for pay of six clerks in the ofiice in Wash- 
ington, for the pay and necessary traveling expenses of the local 
superintendents, teachers, physicians, and other employees in Alaska, 
and all other necessarj' miscellaneous expenses which are not included 
under the above special heads, to be immediately available $100, 000 

For the support maintenance, construction, and rental of 50 additional 

day schools in Alaska for the Eskimos, Indians, and other natives. . . 200, 000 

For the construction and equipment of 2 industrial boarding schools 
for the children of the native races of Alaska, to be located at suitable 
points in Alaska to be designated by the Secretary of the Interior. . . 155, 000 

For the construction and equipment of 2 orphan asylums for the chil- 
dren of the native races of Alaska, to be located at suitable places in 
Alaska to be designated by the Secretary of the Interior 155, 000 

. Prorided, That all expenditure of money appropriated herein for school purposes 
in Alaska shall be at all times under the supervision and direction of the Commis- 
sioner of Education, and in all respects in conformity with such conditions, rules, 
and regulations as to conduct and methods of instruction and expenditure of money 
as may from time to time be recommended by the Commissioner of Education and 
approved by the Secretary of the Interior. 

It is further provided that the appropriations made by the above sections, all and 
several, shall be available for the purposes indicated immediately upon the passage 
of this act, and, in the discretion of the Secretary of the Interior, thereafter until 
such schools are erected and completed, and that said schools shall be erected and 
equipped as soon after the passage of this act and as rapidly as is consistent with 
carefiil choice of the situations for said schools and with thorough and effective 
construction. 



6 EDUCATION IN ALASKA. 

Estimates of appropriations required for the service of the fiscal year ending June SO, 1907, 

by the Department of the Interior. 

DEPARTMENT OP THE INTERIOR. 

Education in Alaska: 

For the support, maintenance, construction, and rental of 50 additional 
day schools in Alaska for the Esquimaux, Indians, and other natives, 
to be immediately available, and available until expended (sub- 
mitted) $200, 000 

For the construction and equipment of two industrial boarding schools 
for the children of the native races of Alaska, to be located at suit- 
able points in Alaska to be designated by the Secretary of the Inte- 
rior, to be immediately available, and available until expended (sub- 
mitted) 155, 000 

For the construction and equipment of two orphan asylums for the 
children of the native races of Alaska, to be located at suitable places 
in Alaska to be designated by the Secretary of the Interior, to be 
immediately available, and available until expended (submitted) . . . 155, 000 



Total 510, 000 

Provided, That all expenditure of money appropriated herein for school purposes 
in Alaska shall be at all times under the supervision and direction of the Commis- 
sioner of Education, and in all respects in conformity with such conditions, rules, 
and regulations as to conduct and methods of instruction and expenditure of money 
as may from time to time be recommended by the Commissioner of Education and 
approved by the Secretary of the Interior. 

o 



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